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Good Medicine: How to Turn Pain into Compassion with Tonglen Meditation
Within the wisdom teachings of Buddhism, there are many stories that refer to its founder as the Supreme Physician, a healer of all illness--mental, physical, and spiritual. The Buddha understood suffering and its antidote, and his prescription and philosophy for right living led directly to a Tibetan meditation practice that is the medicine our modern-day hearts have been searching for.
On Good Medicine, the remarkable American-born Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Ch�dr�n shares the gift of tonglen, a simple and elegant meditation system for ordinary people like ourselves. Through tonglen, we can use the difficulties in life--those that cause the most suffering--as a way to befriend ourselves, accept the past we have rejected, and widen our circle of compassion. These traditional breathing meditations cut through obstacles on the spot.
Skillfully distilled into a two-and-a half-hour workshop, Good Medicine offers a revolutionary practice that is already 1,000 years old--and ready to awaken our hearts today.
Note: These CD-ROM-format enhanced CDs contain audio, music, and video clips and are meant to be played on your computer, using an Internet connection, speakers, and Real Player programs, which are free for download. Enhanced content is exclusive to CD version
On Good Medicine, the remarkable American-born Tibetan Buddhist nun Pema Ch�dr�n shares the gift of tonglen, a simple and elegant meditation system for ordinary people like ourselves. Through tonglen, we can use the difficulties in life--those that cause the most suffering--as a way to befriend ourselves, accept the past we have rejected, and widen our circle of compassion. These traditional breathing meditations cut through obstacles on the spot.
Skillfully distilled into a two-and-a half-hour workshop, Good Medicine offers a revolutionary practice that is already 1,000 years old--and ready to awaken our hearts today.
Note: These CD-ROM-format enhanced CDs contain audio, music, and video clips and are meant to be played on your computer, using an Internet connection, speakers, and Real Player programs, which are free for download. Enhanced content is exclusive to CD version
4 pages, Audio CD
First published August 1, 1999
3 people are currently reading
236 people want to read
About the author
Pema Chödrön
189 books5,458 followersAni Pema Chödrön (Deirdre Blomfield-Brown) is an American Buddhist nun in the Tibetan tradition, closely associated with the Kagyu school and the Shambhala lineage.
She attended Miss Porter's School in Connecticut and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She taught as an elementary school teacher for many years in both New Mexico and California. Pema has two children and three grandchildren.
While in her mid-thirties, she traveled to the French Alps and encountered Lama Chime Rinpoche, with whom she studied for several years. She became a novice nun in 1974 while studying with Lama Chime in London. His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa came to England at that time, and Ani Pema received her ordination from him.
Ani Pema first met her root guru, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972. Lama Chime encouraged her to work with Trungpa, and it was with him that she ultimately made her most profound connection, studying with him from 1974 until his death in 1987. At the request of the Sixteenth Karmapa, she received the full bikshuni ordination in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong.
Ani Pema served as the director of the Karma Dzong, in Boulder, CO, until moving in 1984 to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to be the director of Gampo Abbey. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche gave her explicit instructions on establishing this monastery for western monks and nuns.
Ani Pema currently teaches in the United States and Canada and plans for an increased amount of time in solitary retreat under the guidance of Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.
She attended Miss Porter's School in Connecticut and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She taught as an elementary school teacher for many years in both New Mexico and California. Pema has two children and three grandchildren.
While in her mid-thirties, she traveled to the French Alps and encountered Lama Chime Rinpoche, with whom she studied for several years. She became a novice nun in 1974 while studying with Lama Chime in London. His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa came to England at that time, and Ani Pema received her ordination from him.
Ani Pema first met her root guru, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972. Lama Chime encouraged her to work with Trungpa, and it was with him that she ultimately made her most profound connection, studying with him from 1974 until his death in 1987. At the request of the Sixteenth Karmapa, she received the full bikshuni ordination in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong.
Ani Pema served as the director of the Karma Dzong, in Boulder, CO, until moving in 1984 to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to be the director of Gampo Abbey. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche gave her explicit instructions on establishing this monastery for western monks and nuns.
Ani Pema currently teaches in the United States and Canada and plans for an increased amount of time in solitary retreat under the guidance of Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 19, 2007
I love Pema Chodron. I listened to this on the 12 hour drive/move from Washington DC to Alabama. She describes the practice of Tonglen, how it relates to compassion, and how a Tonglen approach can be used in everyday life. The great thing about the explanation is that it does not become necessary to begin the practice to benefit from the approach. I doubt that I will begin a formal practice any time soon, but the approach helped me to deal with difficult situations within the same day of listening ot the CD.
September 18, 2018
The right book at the right time for me.
April 23, 2021
Pema's voice calms me. Her humor delights me.
Read
September 17, 2020We are often caught in a dualistic trap of desire, aversion, and ignorance. We make judgements about life, categorizing events as good or bad, pleasurable or painful, right or wrong, moral or immoral.
We desire what seems attractive and pleasurable, while we avoid or resist suffering, pain, distress, confusion, uncertainty, and hurt.
Then we ignore what doesn’t stimulate us, what seems uninteresting and boring. In many cases, we ignore what is too hard and painful to accept. Distracting our minds from what is.
Through tonglen practice, we can change our relationship to desire and aversion and ignorance.
Rather than being averse to pain, clinging to comfort, or ignoring what we don’t like, we can be mindful of ourselves, of all the energy in our bodies, without judgement, without attachment.
We can work with our suffering through being present. Instead of categorizing experience as good and bad, right and wrong, pleasurable and painful, we can simply be with what is.
When we drop our storylines, we can become friends with our pain and not cling to fleeting pleasures.
Then we can transform ourselves from our awareness of a changing, nuanced life.
We can inhale our suffering and exhale our joy. As we breathe, we can wish others to feel our joy and to not feel our suffering.
Rather than hiding from our sorrow and pain, we can directly engage with it—not in following the storylines of our sorrow and pain, or in justifying why we feel or think in a given way, but in seeing the energy behind everything.
When we look into ourselves with honesty and compassion, we can extend our view to others.
It is so easy to believe that we are the only ones who feel anger and pain, fear and depression, and so on, but we are not alone. Other people feel like us too.
Rather than reinforcing old habitual patterns of alienation and isolation, we can remind ourselves that we are all human and dependent on each other.
When we feel sadness, we can connect to the sadness of others, when we feel happy, we can connect to the happiness of others.
Our lives are the perfect material for our compassion. The more we focus on our patience, the more we realize how impatient we are. The more we focus on our anger, the more we discover how often we become angry. Every moment is a teacher, helping us to become better humans.
When we breathe in, we can imagine ourselves inhaling thickness, darkness, heat, heaviness, claustrophobia, or pain.
When we breathe out, we can release all that dark energy, transforming it into cool, bright light.
We can take in what is hard and let it go.
We can use our friends, our family, our troublesome associates, anyone, as material for our practice.
When we suffer, we can wish for others to not suffer as we are suffering. When we feel happiness, we can wish for others to feel happiness as we do. Through our practice, we can compassionately connect to all of life.
From “taking and sending,” we can awaken our compassion.
Instead of hiding from our suffering, we can learn to embrace it. We can visualize ourselves taking in pain, then sending out tenderness and care.
We can take in what is dark and send out the light. Through this daily practice, we will soon find that the distinction between what is given and what is taken, the inner and outer, life and death, good and evil, blurs.
For more on tonglen practice:
https://youtu.be/-x95ltQP8qQ
We desire what seems attractive and pleasurable, while we avoid or resist suffering, pain, distress, confusion, uncertainty, and hurt.
Then we ignore what doesn’t stimulate us, what seems uninteresting and boring. In many cases, we ignore what is too hard and painful to accept. Distracting our minds from what is.
Through tonglen practice, we can change our relationship to desire and aversion and ignorance.
Rather than being averse to pain, clinging to comfort, or ignoring what we don’t like, we can be mindful of ourselves, of all the energy in our bodies, without judgement, without attachment.
We can work with our suffering through being present. Instead of categorizing experience as good and bad, right and wrong, pleasurable and painful, we can simply be with what is.
When we drop our storylines, we can become friends with our pain and not cling to fleeting pleasures.
Then we can transform ourselves from our awareness of a changing, nuanced life.
We can inhale our suffering and exhale our joy. As we breathe, we can wish others to feel our joy and to not feel our suffering.
Rather than hiding from our sorrow and pain, we can directly engage with it—not in following the storylines of our sorrow and pain, or in justifying why we feel or think in a given way, but in seeing the energy behind everything.
When we look into ourselves with honesty and compassion, we can extend our view to others.
It is so easy to believe that we are the only ones who feel anger and pain, fear and depression, and so on, but we are not alone. Other people feel like us too.
Rather than reinforcing old habitual patterns of alienation and isolation, we can remind ourselves that we are all human and dependent on each other.
When we feel sadness, we can connect to the sadness of others, when we feel happy, we can connect to the happiness of others.
Our lives are the perfect material for our compassion. The more we focus on our patience, the more we realize how impatient we are. The more we focus on our anger, the more we discover how often we become angry. Every moment is a teacher, helping us to become better humans.
When we breathe in, we can imagine ourselves inhaling thickness, darkness, heat, heaviness, claustrophobia, or pain.
When we breathe out, we can release all that dark energy, transforming it into cool, bright light.
We can take in what is hard and let it go.
We can use our friends, our family, our troublesome associates, anyone, as material for our practice.
When we suffer, we can wish for others to not suffer as we are suffering. When we feel happiness, we can wish for others to feel happiness as we do. Through our practice, we can compassionately connect to all of life.
From “taking and sending,” we can awaken our compassion.
Instead of hiding from our suffering, we can learn to embrace it. We can visualize ourselves taking in pain, then sending out tenderness and care.
We can take in what is dark and send out the light. Through this daily practice, we will soon find that the distinction between what is given and what is taken, the inner and outer, life and death, good and evil, blurs.
For more on tonglen practice:
https://youtu.be/-x95ltQP8qQ
January 8, 2020
Excellent guided introduction to the purpose, meaning, and expectations of a meditation practice. Pema Chodron is a gifted teacher who, from my experience, needs to be heard to receive the totality of what she offers. I had trouble reading her books. Her voice on this audiobook of several recorded sessions opened me to hear and understand and appreciate her way of teaching ancient, yet always relevant, Buddhist philosophy.
March 26, 2024
Pema has a gentle way of simplifying use of meditation practice. There are no absolutes in making use of it and the results are powerful. Starting where you are and outfit into practice are the master keys to getting the benefits from its use. Good Medicine describes the use of meditation in ways to cultivate compassion for ourselves and others around us. If you’re having trouble letting go of the past, this book is for you!
July 25, 2019
Pema Chodron's teachings on Tonglen Meditation and cultivating loving kindness don't change much from talk to talk.
This recorded lecture was perfect for a refresher on Tonglen Meditation and helped me recenter my thoughts. Her light-hearted and loving approach to teaching always leaves me comforted and a little more at ease with my thoughts.
This recorded lecture was perfect for a refresher on Tonglen Meditation and helped me recenter my thoughts. Her light-hearted and loving approach to teaching always leaves me comforted and a little more at ease with my thoughts.
November 16, 2024
I particularly appreciated the calm voice and clear instructions. But the repetitive gong sound is very very uncomfortable to my auditory system. Once or twice is enough.
Like the peacock who eats poison and thus its feathers grow brighter, I guess that is something else to swallow.
Like the peacock who eats poison and thus its feathers grow brighter, I guess that is something else to swallow.
July 24, 2019
Was not as engaging as I expected given the recommendation by Seth Godin on the Tim Ferriss podcast.
September 14, 2019
Not exactly a book but I downloaded it from the library and it's here on Goodreads so I'm counting it! A good listen for my commute as I return to work in the new school year.
June 23, 2020
This includes a description of tonglen and a guided meditation through it. Wonderful! Pema focuses on gentleness and being really honest about where one is to oneself. It is about turning in the direction and being ok with where one finds oneself on the path. This is one I will come back to again and again.
October 7, 2020
I often feel like some books land and some don’t. This book was the right book at the right time. I feel more open to the practice and to myself.
May 3, 2021
an enlighten conversation.
May 15, 2022
Important and helpful for life's difficult times.
January 28, 2023
Good short book on Tonglen mediation. How you can turn your pain or pain in the world into compassion for yourself and others.
September 20, 2023
My heart is brimmed with love, compassion and insight.. beautiful and really the most helpful to me
December 30, 2020
Via hoopla
April 1, 2008
this is how i learned what maitri truly means. beyond friendship, but to be a a true, dear and compassionate friend to one's self. that is just poetry to me.
June 13, 2009
audio tape copied listened to many times
October 11, 2011
As I engage with this practice, I'm finding the effects on the way I relate with others are tremendous.
October 24, 2012
Excellent.
April 5, 2020
2019.06.02–2019.06.02
Chödrön P (2001) (02:19) Good Medicine - How to Turn Pain into Compassion with Tonglen Meditation
Chödrön P (2001) (02:19) Good Medicine - How to Turn Pain into Compassion with Tonglen Meditation
January 24, 2015
I love to listen and meditate with Pema.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews